The Soothing Cup

The Soothing Cup

https://vimeo.com/719433906?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=96746386

What if a living object could reconnect humans with their menstrual cycle and change the way we perceive it? The Soothing Cup explores a speculative future reimaging the interaction between the menstrual body, the vaginal environment, and a living menstrual cup.

The vaginal microbiome and the stigma surrounding menstruation:
The vaginal microbiome plays a central role in preventing vaginal infections and resorting balance, as well as reducing symptoms of dysmenorrhea; severe menstrual cramps, which affect around 80% of people who menstruate. However, recent studies have highlighted how most menstrual hygiene products and pain relief medication affect our bodies and the planet by interfering with the healthy microbes we live with. Furthermore, the patriarchal and capitalistic culture has perpetuated the stigma around periods by promoting the production of single-use products that have influenced the behaviours of many generations.

The living menstrual cup and its incubator:
The Soothing Cup explores a speculative future where menstruators are deeply attached to their menstrual cups, establishing a mutualistic relationship as an alternative to chemically preventing periods. The development of an alginate-based hydrogel allows the cup to become a membrane able to interact with the vaginal environment. Thanks to an incubator that acts as a surrogate vagina, people who menstruate can cultivate their own anti-inflammatory bacteria and let them colonize their cups once a month. When off-menses, the user can take care of the cup whilst increasing awareness and challenging the stigma around periods.

The aim of the project:
The Soothing Cup attempts to bring the viewer of this work into a world where menstruators have a psychologically deep and intimate connection with their cycle, where there is no shame surrounding menstruation but rather respect for the natural process of the body and the vaginal microbiome. The incubator (the surrogate vagina) wants to have a powerful symbolic form, pointing the viewer’s imagination towards the world the project is attempting to manifest. The aim is to have equal weighting on both scientific ethics and cultural and political aspects.

#femalehealth #biodesign #materials

https://graduateshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/359634/cover

For this project, I have decided to explore hydrogels as suitable materials able to interact with the vaginal environment. These materials can act as a membrane while maintaining the structure. Due to their biocompatibility, they have aroused interest in biomedical industries to be applied in tissue engineering and drug delivery. After analysing several peer reviews on these materials, sodium alginate was the most popular naturally derived hydrogel so I have decided to mix it with a selective media for lactobacillus. These amazing bacteria were able to grow inside the selected hydrogel and colonize the material both in the gelly and cross-linked stages while maintaining good material flexibility.

I am interested in emerging technologies and the bioprinting process has always fascinated me. Usually, commercial bioprinters are very expensive and available only to companies able to invest in this technology. This is the reason why I have decided to hack my 3D printer following an open-source tutorial to transform it into a bioprinter able to extrude hydrogels through a sterile syringe. Using a digital fabrication tool is one of the main aspects of my project because I believe it plays a key role to scale up the process and customizing medical devices able to be worn internally and adapt to different body shapes.

Despite I have decided to categorize it as a speculative project, further developments may lead to transforming it into the first “living” menstrual hygiene product present on the market. I believe that creating a stronger relationship with such an intimate object as a menstrual cup can allow menstruators to become more conscious about their bodies. The users can understand how to cultivate the anti-inflammatory bacteria that during menses, exponentially decrease in people who suffer from severe menstrual cramps. Once a month, different strains of probiotic bacteria can grow and colonize the menstrual cup inside an incubator that biomimics the vaginal environment.

The incubator is equipped with a touch screen that helps the user to navigate its functions. The screen interface is divided into three main sections: two of them to switch between “off-menses mode” (the care) and “on-menses mode” (the growth). The last one (the ritual) offers an overview of the process of listening to the body's signals and understanding when it is time to start cultivating the bacteria.

Moreover, I think the most important feature is having a meaningful object able to overcome some stigma related to menstruation. With this project, I want to produce a shift between the production of single-use period products to be ashamed of and a beautiful product able to be exhibited in the home environment as part of the furniture.

The current menstrual hygiene products are extremely polluting for the environment and the human body because of the chemical compounds embedded. While long-term products are made of synthetic materials, the most “natural” single-use products rely on the unsustainable consumption of resources. Moreover, the missing alternatives for managing menstrual cramps have led people to decide to chemically prevent periods using hormones, causing a chain effect on both the environment and biodiversity. The Soothing Cup aims to replace silicone menstrual cups using naturally derived hydrogels while developing healing properties able to fight dysmenorrhea symptoms.